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AFTER almost five years in the heart of London’s West End, one of our top dealers, Kevin Smith of Windsor House Antiques, has decided Mayfair is not for him.

Following the lead of The Fine Art Auction Group, Fernhurst auctioneers John Nicholson are to increase their buyer’s premium from 15 to 17.5 per cent.

Preview: One of the classic images of the Victorian era is the picture of the resolute monarch on horseback with her trusted servant and confidant John Brown. This photograph, taken in 1864, is to be found in a remarkable album of memorabilia that the auctioneers Sebök (17.24% buyer’s premium) in the Bavarian city of Bamberg are offering on March 5.

Franz Xavier Messerschmidt (1736-83) was one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of Western art.

A CONFERENCE addressing the special problems facing the art and antiques trade will be held at the Earls Court Conference Centre in London on Monday, May 16.

With Sir Walter Scott setting the tone and Victoria and Albert in the vanguard, 19th century followers of fashion developed a highly romanticised passion for all things Scottish.

With standard prices of antique furniture failing to keep pace with the property market (reported on the front page of last week’s Antiques Trade Gazette), even the most optimistic market observer could be forgiven for doubting the commercial potential of a mahogany hybrid offered at Bonhams Knightsbridge (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) on January 17.

At first glance, this 7ft 6in x 5ft 7in (2.28 x 1.70m) canvas, right, of the Temptation of Adam by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Santerre (1651-1717) might seem to be a fairly standard, if unusually large, depiction of one of the most hackneyed religious themes in Western art.

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee will meet next week to consider the request from the People's Republic of China to seek restrictions on Chinese works of art imported to America.

Edinburgh dealer John Dixon of Georgian Antiques has joined the LAPADA board of directors.

This pair of Hanoverian pattern tablespoons offered at Woolley & Wallis, right, is of interest not just for the unascribed and possibly Scottish marks but for the scratched initials RP and the lightly engraved iconography of a crown, a cardinal’s hat and the name Henry Stuart.

At Sandown Park Antiques Fair on February 15, Paul Braithwaite on stand HW5 is offering this early 20th century surgeons’ fitted box, made by Mayer & Meltzer, surgical instrument makers in London, for £385.

If one wanted to view in miniature the issues experienced by the antiques trade as a whole, one could do worse than to look to the golfiana market.

The final Dix Noonan Webb (15% buyer’s premium) 2004 sale in London, on December 14, was a massive 1610-lot affair with a diversity of offerings. The total hammer take was £282,905.

THE first afternoon session of a January 20-21 antiques sale held by Lawrences of Crewkerne presented more than 400 lots of books, amongst them a good collection of private press books featuring the wood-engraved illustrations of David Jones.

THE appearance of a significant Lenkiewicz forgery on the market has prompted the foundation dedicated to the artist to set up an authentication service.

Christie's King Street, 20 January, Buyer's Premium: 20/12%.The most expensive piece from the 26 lots offered from Endsleigh, the Devon cottage designed for the 6th Duke of Bedford was this 6ft (1.8m) wide carved oak side table designed c.1801-14 by Jeffry Wyatt, the architect responsible for the main decorative scheme at Endsleigh, and made by local cabinetmaker John Williams of Exeter.

Charterhouse, Sherborne, December 10, Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent TWO fine timepieces led this Dorset sale. Top price by a long way was the £21,000 bid for an unusual brass skeleton clock designed for a Victorian railway industrialist.

For the third year running, prices for standard pieces of antique furniture have failed to keep pace with the property market, according the Antique Collectors’ Club’s annual index.

The £1.7m price tag needed to keep the Macclesfield Psalter in the UK has been found.